Why Do People Cheat In Happy Relationships? 4 Myths About Infidelity And Affairs

Why do people cheat in happy relationships? Are most of us have guilty of some kind of cheating? Learn more about the myths about having affairs.

Why do committed partners cheat even in seemingly happy relationships? Why do they feel like straying away even when they are loved and cared for?

In this article, we will take a closer look at why do people cheat on people they love, what affairs are really about and also shed light on the common myths about affairs and infidelity that we all need to understand and accept.

โ€œTis my opinion every man cheats in his own way, and he is only honest who is not discovered.โ€ โ€“ Susannah Centlivre

How many of you have been personally affected by infidelity?*

I was in the audience when Esther Perel asked this and 80% raised their hands.

What about you? Would your hand have gone up?

Maybe you had a parent who had an affair. Maybe that affair broke up your parentsโ€™ marriage. Maybe it was your best friend or your sister who strayed. Maybe it was your spouse. Maybe it was you.

In her recent TED talk, Rethinking Infidelity โ€ฆ a talk for anyone who has ever loved, Esther Perel examines why people cheat, why infidelity is so devastating and how, at the heart of most affairs youโ€™ll find issues of longing and loss โ€” longing for novelty, sexual intensity, freedom, and a wish to recapture vitality in the face of tragedy or loss.

โ€œEvery man wants a woman to appeal to his better side, his nobler instincts and his higher nature โ€” and another woman to help him forget them.โ€ โ€“ Helen Rowland

Esther tells us that sheโ€™s asked all the time: โ€œWhat percentage of people cheat?โ€ Her answer: because there is no universally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes infidelity โ€” Sexting? Watching porn? Staying secretly active on dating sites? Kissing? Thinking about kissing? โ€”thereโ€™s no way to measure. โ€œEstimates vary,โ€ she says, โ€œfrom 26% to 75%.โ€

โ€œWhat if even a good marriage cannot inoculate us against wanderlust?What if passion has a finite shelf life? What if there are things that even a good relationship cannot give us?โ€

Sheโ€™s also asked, โ€œFor or against?โ€ โ€” as in, do you think affairs are a good or bad thing? And hereโ€™s where what sheโ€™s saying gets interesting.

Though her somewhat mischievous reply to the pro or con question is โ€œyes,โ€ her more serious message is that we need to look at infidelity in a more nuanced way. We need to move the conversation beyond good and bad; beyond victim and perpetrator.

Related: 10 Cheating Myths You Need To Stop Believing

And in order to do that, we need to understand what affairs are really about.

Why Do People Cheat In Happy Relationships? 4 Alarming Myths About Cheating

Myth #1- Affairs are about unhappy marriages (or unhealthy people.)

Itโ€™s a common assumption: if someone has an affair, thereโ€™s either something wrong in their relationship or thereโ€™s something wrong with them. But as Esther points out, โ€œmillions of people canโ€™t all be pathological.โ€ Nor are they all fleeing miserable marriages.

The one thing people all over the world have told her about their affair โ€” it makes them feel โ€œalive.โ€œ

โ€œWhen a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.โ€ โ€“ Francois La Rochefoucauld

Conventional wisdom says that if everything is going well at home โ€” good sex, good times โ€”thereโ€™s no need to look elsewhere. But the questions Esther raises in her talk challenge us to rethink.

โ€œWhat if even a good marriage cannot inoculate us against wanderlust?โ€ she asks. โ€œWhat if passion has a finite shelf life? What if there are things that even a good relationship cannot give us?โ€

With this, she isnโ€™t condoning affairs as an antidote to the predictable boredom or restlessness of a long term relationship. What sheโ€™s saying is that itโ€™s complicated, that the answer to the question of why people stray is not black and white. Itโ€™s not simple. And itโ€™s often not what we tend to think.

Myth #2 โ€“ Affairs are about sex.

โ€œThe nurse of infidelity is sensuality.โ€ โ€“ Lord David Cecil

Contrary to what many of us assume, affairs are a lot less about sex and a lot more about desire. A desire for attention, a desire to feel special, to feel important โ€” a desire to be desired.

The very structure of an affair: the secrecy, the ambiguity, the fact that you have to go days or weeks without seeing each other, that you can never have your lover โ€” these things keep you hungry, they keep you wanting. โ€œThis in itself,โ€ she says, โ€œis a desire machine.โ€

Of course, affairs are not just about sex. Many people โ€” hundredsโ€ฆthousands โ€” find themselves crossing a line that theyโ€™ve never imagined crossing. They risk everythingโ€ฆ for what? An erotic text message? The kiss of a stranger? A hot night in bed?

Estherโ€™s hypothesis: the one thing people all over the world have told her about their affair โ€” it makes them feel โ€œalive.โ€

A friend dies. A parent dies. Someone is diagnosed with cancer. They themselves have a health scare. And they think, is this all there is? Am I simply going to go on living this way for another 25 years? Will I ever feel passion again? Death and mortality often live in the shadow of an affair because they raise existential questions like these.

Questions that are more about life and death, about passion and desire, than about when and where and with whom Iโ€™ll get laid.

Myth #3 โ€“ Infidelity will destroy a marriage.

โ€œItโ€™s easy to deny the seriousness of an emotional affair but it can be extremely threatening to a marriage.โ€ โ€“ Dr. Gail on MSNBC

For all couples, an affair constitutes a betrayal, a crisis. For some, the crisis is a relationship deal-breaker, while for others the crisis becomes an opportunity.

The vast majority of couples stay married in the wake of an affair. Iโ€™ve seen statistics that suggest that as many as 75% of couples survive. Some will do that and no more. Theyโ€™ll โ€œsurvive.โ€ Others will embark on a process of growth, of self-exploration.

โ€œEvery affair redefines the relationship,โ€ Perel says, โ€œand every couple will determine what the legacy of the affair will be.โ€

In the immediate aftermath of an affair, many couples โ€œwill have depths of conversations with honesty and openness that they havenโ€™t had in decades,โ€ she says.

My clinical experience bears this out. Iโ€™ve seen it time and again with the couples I work with, many of them saying that post-affair their relationship is better โ€” as in healthier and more rewarding โ€” than it had ever been.

Related: 4 Reasons Why Men Cheat And Signs He is Having An Affair

Myth #4 โ€“ Monogamy is a set up for infidelity.

โ€œThe new infidelity is between people who unwittingly form deep, passionate connections before realizing that theyโ€™ve crossed the line from platonic friendship into romantic love. Infidelity is any emotional or sexual intimacy that violates trust.โ€ โ€“ Shirley Glass

Everyoneโ€™s got an opinion about why people have affairs. They blame marriage, monogamy, testosterone, pornโ€ฆ

Marriage is too hard.

โ€œMost of us are going to have 2 or 3 relationships or marriages, and some of us are going to do it with the same person. Your first marriage is over. Would you like to create a second one together?โ€

Monogamy is a prison sentence.

Men, they just want sex all the time.

Hereโ€™s what Esther has to say:

Affairs happen even in open relationships. The conversation about monogamy is not the same conversation as the one about infidelity. Even when we have the freedom to have other sexual partners, we still seem to be lured by the power of the forbidden. If we do that which we are not supposed to do then we feel that we are really doing what we want.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Itโ€™s been said that the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. If thatโ€™s true, then โ€œRethinking Infidelityโ€ฆโ€ is going to give your intelligence a workout.

Esther Perel invites us to think about infidelity in terms of both/and as opposed to either/or. She asks us, as well, to make sense of a good number of contradictions.

โ€œThose who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know loveโ€™s tragedies.โ€ โ€“ Oscar Wilde

While she is no way recommends that people have affairs, experience has shown her that some good things can come from them.

Affairs are almost universally devastating and many couples use them to revitalize their relationships.

She says that 95% of us will say it is terribly wrong for our partner to lie about having an affair and the same number of us will say thatโ€™s exactly what we would do if we were having one.

And while many people who have affairs may feel terribly guilty for hurting their partner, they donโ€™t feel guilty for the experience of the affair itself.

As Esther says, she looks at affairs from a dual perspective: hurt and betrayal on one side, growth, and self-discovery on the other.

โ€œWhen you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.โ€ โ€“ Isaac Bashevis Singer

Some of you may be offended by her talk. You may think she makes light of what may well have decimated your marriage. Others of you will be made curious. You may find it illuminating, refreshing. You may be relieved that thereโ€™s a way to talk about infidelity that reaches beyond villains and victims. You may understand your own longings and behaviors in a new way.

And maybe youโ€™ll pause to consider her final thought: โ€œMost of us are going to have 2 or 3 relationships or marriages, and some of us are going to do it with the same person. Your first marriage is over,โ€ she tells her clients. โ€œWould you like to create a second one together?โ€

Hereโ€™s an insightful video on infidelity by Esther Perel that you may find interesting:

Cheating hurts, but you can overcome it

Cheating can cause a lot of pain to the partner who has been cheated upon. Whether itโ€™s emotional infidelity or sexual betrayal, the pain feels the same. It can even affect your sense of self-worth and self-esteem. However, you have to realize this is not a result of what you have or havenโ€™t done. You have to value yourself and love yourself first if you wish to get over this and make things better with your partner.

โ€œDeceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.โ€ โ€“ Oscar Wilde

If you decide to make things work, then infidelity can be a great opportunity to revive and even strengthen your โ€˜happyโ€™ relationship. However, you will need to get over the pain and the unpleasant memory of cheating. Make sure you have an open discussion about this and you donโ€™t raise this issue every time you have a small fight with your partner. Despite what they might say, your partner does feel guilty and ashamed for the pain they have caused you.

Related: The Unedited Truth About Why Couples Cheat

The only way to move forward and make your relationship work is to let the โ€˜oldโ€™ relationship go and start a โ€˜newโ€™ relationship with the same partner.


Written by Winifred Reilly
Originally appeared in The Goodmen Project
Why Do People Cheat Even In Happy Relationships? 4 Myths About Infidelity and Affairs
Why Do People Cheat Even In Happy Relationships? 4 Myths About Infidelity and Affairs
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